Overnight Open Thread (5-31-2012)

The Left loves to carry on about how defense spending is the reason why the Federal budget has such a huge deficit, but as you can see here that just isn't the case.

As a percent of the overall budget spending on defense - a core function of the federal government mind you - is at it's lowest level in over 50 years. The real issue is that medical and safety net spending has grown from a paltry 7% of the budget during the Kennedy Administration to nearly 36% today. And note that this is before ObamaCare spending starts kicking in.

Extrapolating a few years ahead you can see that the US government is on track to become a giant insurance company that happens to have a military and some government services as a sideline.

The U.S. Marine Corps is buying an unspecified number of Switchblade micro-UAV/cruise missiles. The marines apparently noted the success the U.S. Army and SOCOM (Special Operations Command) had with this system. The Switchblade is a one kilogram (2.2 pound) expendable (used only once) UAV that can be equipped with explosives. The Switchblade is launched from its shipping and storage tube, at which point wings flip out, a battery powered propeller starts spinning, and a vidcam begins broadcasting images to the controller.

Moving at up to a kilometer a minute, the Switchblade can stay in the air for 20-40 minutes (depending on whether or not it is armed with explosives). The armed version can be flown to a target and detonated, having about the same explosive effect as a hand grenade.

For over a decade, CNN (Cable News Network) has been providing transcripts of shows, events and newscasts from its broadcasts. The archive has been maintained and the text transcripts have been dependably available at transcripts.cnn.com. This is a just-in-case grab of the years of transcripts for later study and historical research.

He was officer in the Polish Army at the beginning of WWII and after Poland's defeat by the Germans and Russians he helped found The Secret Polish Army, one of the main resistance organizations.

He is also likely the only person to have ever created an intelligence cell and clandestine radio station from within Auschwitz in order to get word of what was happening there to the outside world.

During World War II, he volunteered for a Polish resistance operation to get imprisoned at Auschwitz in order to gather intelligence and escape. While in the camp, Pilecki organized a resistance movement and as early as 1941, informed the Western Allies of Nazi Germany's Auschwitz atrocities. He escaped from the camp in 1943 and took part in the Warsaw Uprising. He remained loyal to the London-based Polish government-in-exile and was executed in 1948 by the Stalinist secret police Urzad Bezpieczenstwa on charges of working for "foreign imperialism", thought to be a euphemism for MI6.

For his troubles he was tortured and executed by the post-war communist Polish government and his memory was suppressed.

Thanks to Wretchard of the Belmont Club for helping keep him from being forgotten. And explaining why the Poles are so angry now at Obama's casual insult.

And gold is piker coming in at #15 at a mere $56/gram. Of course the most valuable substance per unit of weight today is untainted orphan blood concentrate - only available to select world leaders and a few elite rock stars.